Hi all,

I am sure this has been discussed to death, but I fail to find answers to my questions by looking at previous posts, Googling the web and usenet, etc.

My setup:
AIW 128 pro AGP
Celeron 433
BX motherboard
128M RAM
Win98SE
MMC7.6

I want to capture cartoons off the TV for the kids (they go through video tapes like crazy!). I have tried the direct VCD capture from MMC 7.6, while acceptable, I find the quality poor.

All the research so far tells me to capture AVI and then post-process (virtualDub, tmpgenc), which I do not mind. But I want to use MMC because of the timer recording and integration with Guide+.

So here are my questions:

Would a faster processor give me better quality doing real-time VCD?

If I want to do post-processing, what settings to use to do the original capture?

I want to edit out commercials, join 3 half-hour shows together (each is made of independant segments). I have looked at Womble (thanks to Rich A. recommendation) and I like it. When is it better to edit, before or after post-processing?

What I am looking for is VHS quality playback on my JVC DVD. I am looking at VCD because of the length (80 mins) but am open to SVCD if it works for me. I think I will need to upgrade my machine, my wife likes the idea of the cartoons on CD so it will make it easier to get her to buy in an upgrade

Thoughts, experience welcome. Point me to a web site, FAQ, etc. if this was already discussed to death.

Thanx for your time
Dan

So here are my notes:

>Would a faster processor give me better quality doing real-time VCD?

Nope, realtime VCD is high compressed and haven't seen satisfactory capture. ATI SVCD capture is much better startpoint, but now it depends on your machine.
Celeron 433 doesn't sound fast enough. BX-board system is best I know and maybe you could overclock it to 570. One of mine is 300@450 and it could take celeron 900 with slotket.

>If I want to do post-processing, what settings to use to do the original capture?

Capture final VCD sized avi but as much bitrate as your machine can take and then use TMPGenc, Procoder, UVS6, LSX or whatever encoder to make true-VCD

<When is it better to edit, before or after post-processing?>
If you capture avi and plan to convert it to VCD then it is better to edit the avi before the encoding. You don't need to waste time on encoding non-wanted parts. You can edit avi with the free program virtualdub but good mpg editors are expensive.

Ronny